45 Best Prison Movies Of All Time Ranked

There's something compelling about a look behind bars –- for many movie fans, prison films are their only experience with the world of incarceration. Prison movies take audiences to places unknown, often bringing us face to face with hardened criminals. Many great prison movies take us deeper, showing us things we didn't expect, whether it's a criminal with surprising kindness, or the brutal conditions faced by inmates the world over. Films about prison can transport us to unique and fascinating worlds, and many successfully hold a mirror up to society, exposing our bizarre desires to see people suffer.

Great prison movies go deeper than this, of course, exposing the remarkable humanity that can exist in prisoner-of-war camps, jails, and chain gangs. They provide insight into this unknown society, and while there are certainly heavy connotations to the prison movie, many subvert them with wicked, often clever humor. Exploring the genre of prison movies yields rich results, especially in a surprisingly diverse slate of films that cover every facet of a life behind bars. In honor of this fascinating, frightening, thrilling, challenging, and sometimes heartwarming genre, here are the 45 best prison movies of all time ranked.

There are many great ways to tell stories about prisons, as shown by this list of vastly different films, but one surefire way to make things exciting is to put someone behind bars who's capable of extraordinary things. That's what happens in Rod Lurie's "The Last Castle," which takes the hugely respected General Irwin (the incredible Robert Redford) and court-martials him, placing him in a maximum security military prison.

The prison he's sent to is known as The Castle, a fortress on a legendary scale that's supposedly impossible to break out of. When Irwin arrives, things seem off, but he just wants to keep his head down and serve his time. It becomes increasingly apparent to Irwin that there is serious corruption at the heart of The Castle, in the form of the heartless warden Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini). Irwin can no longer stand idly by, and rallies over 1,000 inmates to rise up against Winter's tyrannical oppression. Despite the generally poor critical reception faced by "The Last Castle," the movie is actually really great. It's an awesome story of standing up for what's right, and how one person can inspire others by sheer willpower.

Prison movies collide headfirst with exploitation cinema in "The Big Doll House," a 1971 film starring Judith M. Brown, Roberta Collins, and Pam Grier. In the movie, a group of American women are sent to jail in the Philippines, where they face considerable torment from the prison guards. Sick of the shocking and frequently inhumane treatment, one group of ladies decides to band together to take matters into their own hands plotting a big escape from the Filipino prison.

The film is suitably ridiculous, chock full of nudity and violence, and is quite frankly very much a film of its time that has aged rather poorly. Precisely because of that, "The Big Doll House" is fascinating, anchored by a firecracker performance from Pam Grier and some genuine surprises. It's certainly not a typical prison drama, and it definitely earns points for that, with the film earning its status as a deliciously guilty pleasure.

Another genre that rarely mixes with the world of prisons is romance, but in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's "I Love You Phillip Morris," love takes center stage in this black comedy prison flick. Jim Carrey stars as long-time con man Steven Russell, whose lifestyle finally comes to haunt him in the form of a prison sentence. In jail, Russell meets the love of his life -– Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a fellow inmate. The two strike up a passionate romantic relationship, and when Steven is released from jail, he goes right back to his con man ways, impersonating a lawyer to try and free his love so they can co-exist happily, freed from prison once and for all.

"I Love You Phillip Morris" is darkly funny, but it's also a powerful love story about the lengths people will go to to be happy with one another. Ficarra and Requa direct with a fine touch, nicely balancing a complicated story with a powerful romance.

Edward James Olmos is fantastic as Montoyo Santana in 1992's "American Me." While a solid amount of the film takes place in prison, the film is a study of what happens to a person after their time inside, and how they reflect on their life of crime while free. Olmos, who also directed the film, is hugely compelling as it traces three decades of Santana's life while he moves from juvenile hall to reform school, to prison, and back to his life outside. While doing his 18-year prison sentence, Santana rises to the top of the prison drug game and is one of the most feared and revered people inside. When freed, he wants to leave it all behind to start a family and lead an honest life, but his gangster buddies have very different ideas for Santana.

"American Me" equally impressed both critics and audiences, who praised the film for its authenticity. As Roger Ebert noted, "It knows these worlds. The language, the clothes, the attitudes, are all shown with the understated conviction of a director who is sure of his material."

Eric Bana was one of the busiest actors of the 2000s, starring in "Hulk," "Munich," "Troy," "The Time Traveler's Wife," and more. But it was Bana's first starring role in a feature film that really announced him as an extraordinary talent: 2000's "Chopper," where he exploded onto the scene as notorious criminal Chopper Read. The film, directed by Andrew Dominik, uses flashbacks during one of Chopper's various lengthy prison sentences to trace his history and what made him such a notorious criminal. "Chopper" is punctuated by funny dialogue and shocking, brutal violence that delicately balances humor with an intense crime drama.

Critics mostly loved the film, especially Bana's performance. For Australia's ABC Radio, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas said, "'Chopper' is more than a vehicle for Bana's extraordinary performance; it's an immaculately crafted masterpiece of Australian cinema that feels as fresh, energetic, and provocative today as it was the day it was released."

From 1930, George W. Hill's "The Big House" stands the test of time as one of the all-time great prison movies. Chester Morris and Wallace Beery star as Morgan and Butch respectively, the two unofficial leaders of the inmates at the wildly overcrowded jail. The two share a cell together, and they're soon joined by Kent (Robert Montgomery), who is sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter. Morgan is preparing to finally leave prison after a long sentence, but a mix-up involving possession of a knife threatens his once-promising freedom. Morgan eventually escapes, but it's not long before he's thrown back in. The conditions at the prison get worse with each passing day, which leads to a large-scale riot that threatens everyone involved.

"The Big House" was a smash hit, earning four Oscar nominations and winning two: Best Sound, and Best Writing for Francis Marion's excellent screenplay. Marion's script cleverly balances the personal stories of Butch, Morgan, and Kent, as well as their vicious warden James (Lewis Stone), with the overarching systemic problems of the prison system itself.

Burt Reynolds was a major Hollywood star in the 1970s, headlining films like "Smokey and the Bandit," "Shamus," and one of his biggest hits, "Deliverance." While he's great in countless pictures, "The Longest Yard," a wonderful blend of the sports and prison genres, may just be the film he was born to star in. He's a sensation as Paul Crewe, a disgraced football player imprisoned for stealing his girlfriend's car. While locked up, he attracts the attention of the warden, Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert), who loves football and organizes a football league comprised of prison guards.

At the request of Hazen, Crewe forms a football team of his own, comprised of prisoners, to play against the prison guards as a way to help improve the warden's team. Director Robert Aldrich's "The Longest Yard" gives Reynolds a fantastic opportunity to showcase his magnificent charisma, as well as the full capabilities of his action hero persona.

Franklin J. Schaffner's epic 1973 film "Papillon" marks Steve McQueen's first appearance on this list, but it's certainly not the last. In one of the great prison escape films, McQueen stars as Henri Charriere, a convicted murderer. He's known as "Papillon" (French for "butterfly") to everyone in a penal colony in French Guiana, as he has a butterfly tattoo on his chest. Under brutal and unfair conditions, Charriere strikes up an unlikely friendship with the far less physically imposing Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), a big-time forger. While they have little in common, they are very much bonded by their desperation to leave the colony and continue to live.

The prison is extraordinary in its cruelty, rife with solitary confinement and terrible living conditions, with people willing to sell one another out at the drop of a hat in order to maintain their own survival. "There is no escape," the inmates are constantly told, but the bold and fearless Charriere plots a daring jailbreak which proves to be the greatest challenge of his life. "Papillon" was a big hit with audiences, putting up big box office numbers and proving yet again that Steve McQueen was an unstoppable star.

Prison movies are often dominated by men — in fact, in many of them, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single woman at all. But looking back at Classical Hollywood, you'll actually find that quite a few films on the topic were told from a female point of view, and the women-in-prison subgenre was a fairly popular way to delve into this largely unexplored realm.

The best film of the subgenre is "Caged," which broke free of the expectations of an exploitation film, resulting in critical success. The film earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Eleanor Parker. Parker stars as Marie, who is sentenced to prison for being an accessory to an armed robbery that claimed the life of her husband. To make matters worse, when she's behind bars, Marie discovers that she's pregnant. At just 19 years old, Marie experiences the horrors of prison as she fights to stay above it all, so she can do her time and start a new life on the outside.

"American History X" is director Tony Kaye's first and finest film, garnering outstanding acclaim from fans and earning a solid spot on the IMDb Top 250. The film follows Edward Norton in an outstanding performance as Derek, a man imprisoned for committing a hate crime. Derek is a virulent racist and anti-Semite, proudly brandishing a tattoo of a swastika on his chest. While inside, Derek gets to the roots of his hatred, and prison offers the opportunity for Derek's reform. When he gets out, it becomes abundantly clear to him that his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is on the same hateful path he once was, and Derek tries to save him before it's too late.

The film features beautiful black-and-white cinematography while Derek is in prison, and the effect clearly establishes the change in the character's mindset. The film features shocking language and extremely brutal instances of violence, but it's an important movie about how even people who seem far beyond help can actually change. Despite its difficult content, it's a surprisingly optimistic film in some ways, as well as a unique and exceptional prison movie.

If you or a loved one has experienced a hate crime, contact the VictimConnect Hotline by phone at 1-855-4-VICTIM or by chat for more information or assistance in locating services to help. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

Though Terry Gilliam's mind-bending science fiction film "12 Monkeys" isn't typically thought of as a prison movie, it more than qualifies as it spends most of its time behind bars. The fascinating movie takes us to a future where humans live underground, as diseases and viruses have obliterated civilization as we know it. In exchange for some time off his prison sentence, James Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to try and uncover the secrets of the virus that destroyed humanity on Earth. But his mission is far more difficult than he imagined, and he's sent back to the wrong year and placed in a mental institution. The only one who seems truly interested in helping Cole on his quest is the unpredictably manic Jeffrey (Brad Pitt).

"12 Monkeys" is glorious sci-fi that keeps you guessing, and thanks to several mind-blowing plot twists, you'll never guess where this twisty prison thriller is going. Director Gilliam has made a career out of fascinating, fantastical stories, including the exquisite "Brazil." "12 Monkeys" finds the director working at the top of his game, with fabulous and committed performances from Willis and Pitt.

Werner Herzog is a brilliant, challenging filmmaker, making beautiful, complicated movies while emerging as an essential part of the German New Wave. Films like "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" and "Fitzcarraldo" pushed boundaries, and he's also made documentaries like the bleak "Into the Abyss" about capital punishment. Before his documentary about prison, he made "Rescue Dawn," another one of his great films pitting man against nature. The movie is a biopic of fighter pilot turned prisoner of war Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale in another incredible physical transformation).

Taking place during the Vietnam War, "Rescue Dawn" is a powerful testament to the human spirit as Dengler and his fellow captives endure starvation, brutal violence, and other atrocities as they hope to plot a daring escape. The film was a hit with critics: Bob Mondello of NPR called the movie "a gripping real-life thriller," while Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it "an effective, unassuming and old-fashioned action-adventure."

Not to be confused with Michael Bay's 1995 buddy cop hit starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, this "Bad Boys" was released 12 years earlier. Rick Rosenthal's "Bad Boys" follows the life of Mick O'Brien (Sean Penn), a petty criminal living in Chicago. One night, O'Brien goes out to commit one of his typical crimes of stealing from his enemy, but things go terribly wrong: his best friend winds up killed, and O'Brien ends up accidentally killing a young boy (who ends up being his rival's younger brother) while trying to escape police clutches. Because he's under 18, O'Brien is sent to a juvenile correctional facility instead of an adult prison. O'Brien attempts to adjust to life behind bars, but things get complicated when his rival Paco (Esai Morales) also winds up in the same facility, out to avenge the death of his brother.

"Bad Boys" marks one of Penn's earliest film roles, and he delivers a performance filled with grit and anger, but also a surprising sensitivity that helped make him a major Hollywood star. The film doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but it's a hugely entertaining and evocative prison drama well worth seeing.

Burt Lancaster is one of cinema's great actors, starring in memorable movies like "The Swimmer," "From Here to Eternity," and "Elmer Gantry." One of his most impressive performances comes in John Frankenheimer's 1962 film "Birdman of Alcatraz." Lancaster plays Robert Stroud, a fascinating (and real) man imprisoned in the notorious Alcatraz. Surrounded by a life of violence, Stroud winds up in prison for murder, and when he discovers his brother tried to visit him but was denied, he becomes utterly enraged and ends up fatally wounding a guard. Though he's sentenced to death, his mother successfully campaigns for his sentence to be reduced to life in prison. There's a catch, of course, and it's a brutal one: Stroud must spend the rest of his time in solitary confinement.

Stroud's story is one of incredible defiance — instead of being utterly destroyed by his solitary existence, he teaches himself multiple languages and develops a fascination with birds, collecting them in cages and studying them. Eventually, he becomes something of an ornithologist, caring for birds and figuring out how to cure them. "Birdman of Alcatraz" is a unique, original film, telling a surprising and unforgettable story.

In Westgate Penitentiary, the inmates are fed up. The prison is an overcrowded disaster, with leaky roofs, inedible food, and tortuous guards. Though the prisoners live in squalor, chief guard Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn) has no problem with the conditions –- he sees the inmates as less than human, and feels that the qualities of the prison are exactly what they should be. Unfortunately for Munsey, the prisoners don't exactly see things that way, particularly Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster). Collins begins to instigate a riot and a full-scale rebellion: "Nothing's okay. Never was and it never will be. Not till we're out. You get that? Out!" he tells his fellow prisoners.

Directed by Jules Dassin (best known for his heist masterpiece "Rififi"), "Brute Force" unfolds with tremendous rage and fury. It successfully allows us to understand and appreciate the plight of the prisoners, and while it can feel odd to root for criminals, the horrifying treatment they endure will have you cheering for Collins and company to make it out alive.

Jacques Becker's magnificently tense "Le Trou" tells an awe-inspiring story about an incredible attempt to escape. Four prisoners share a cell. To pass the time, the group, who have developed a close bond over their time behind bars and with long sentences ahead of them, conspire to escape to a life of freedom. The dynamic shifts when a fifth prisoner, the quiet and rule-abiding Claude (Marc Michel), enters their cell. The group reluctantly takes on considerable risk, exposing their plan to Claude, who ends up being on board. Their way out is directly below them, and over a nerve-shredding few days, they methodically break through a concrete floor using the post of one of their beds.

The prison break film is nothing new and had even been seen plenty of times before by the time "Le Trou" was released in 1960. Still, the film stands head and shoulders above many of its counterparts thanks to great performances and Becker's world-class ability to mastermind the building of tension. A film like "Le Trou" leaves you utterly breathless, as you wonder if this group of determined prisoners can actually achieve their goal.

Typically, prison break films follow the escape of a select few ingenious prisoners, but "The Great Escape" takes things up a notch with a plan to evacuate hundreds of people from a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland during World War II. Many of the prisoners at this camp are known for their multiple escape attempts, and they're all brought to the same camp in an effort to keep an extremely close eye on them. "There will be no escapes from this camp," one of the commanding officers claims, although those prove to be famous last words.

"The Great Escape" was an enormous success at the box office, raking in over $11 million, an impressive sum for 1963. It also features an absolutely incredible motorcycle stunt that needs to be seen to be believed. The movie contains knockout performances from a dynamite cast, including Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Garner, James Coburn, and Donald Pleasance. "The Great Escape" is a wonderful example of thrills and entertainment that only big-screen, epic cinema can provide.

The only prison movie on this list with the distinction of winning the coveted Best Picture Oscar, David Lean's amazing "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is an epic through and through. The film won an impressive seven Oscars in total, including Best Actor for Alec Guinness, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.

The movie follows a group of British prisoners of war forced to build a railway bridge in enemy-occupied Burma. "If you work hard, you will be treated well," camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) tells the POWs. "But if you do not work hard, you will be punished." What sounds like a fairly reasonable request is soon revealed to be completely insidious, as the "hard work" required is more excruciating and physically demanding than anyone could have imagined.

Director David Lean has a phenomenal ability to make films on a massive scale while retaining an impressive intimacy that makes it feel as if you're right there alongside the characters within Lean's enormous worlds. It's a thrilling, frightening, brutal, and humane story that is worth every second of its mammoth 161-minute runtime.

James Allen (the incomparable Paul Muni) has recently returned from the harsh battlefields of World War I. Allen is a man who wants nothing but the very best for himself, so he travels America with hopes of finding a life that satisfies him, as the war made him restless. During his journey to peace, Allen is wrongly implicated in a robbery he didn't commit and is sentenced to 10 years on a chain gang. He's horrified by the exhausting and savage conditions that come with life on a chain gang, where he's put to hard labor and whipped by unrelenting guards the moment his productivity decreases. Unable to bear the agony, Allen escapes from his chains and makes a run for it.

Mervyn LeRoy's "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" has more than stood the test of time, and this 1932 film feels as prescient as it was nearly a century ago. The film received three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (losing to "Cavalcade"), and it was well-received by critics. Variety called the movie "a picture with guts. It grips with its stark realism and packs lots of punch."

"Chicken Run" may be a surprising entry on our list of the best prison movies of all time, but it's an extremely worthy one. While it may not actually take place in a penitentiary, the Aardman Studios animated classic ingenuously turns a chicken farm into a prison. Things seem rather peaceful at the Tweedy Farm, but Ginger the chicken (Julia Sawalha) and Rocky the rooster (Mel Gibson) uncover a shocking secret: the Tweedys are planning to kill any chicken who can no longer lay eggs, leading the birds to organize a daring escape to save their lives.

It's definitely the single funniest film on this list, with breathtaking stop-motion animation bringing this incredible world of chickens to life. The film drew in enormous box office results, bringing in over $200 million worldwide, and the film received immense critical acclaim as well. "Chicken Run" is an incredible reminder of the power of animation, drawing upon numerous classic prison movies to create an entirely unique, hilarious, and delightful experience.

David Mackenzie's "Starred Up" is the most recent film in the top reaches of the list, but it's a rare example of a movie that becomes an instant classic upon release. The film is an inciting portrait of relentless male rage, channeled beautifully by exquisite performances from Ben Mendelsohn and Jack O'Connell. O'Connell stars as Eric, a hyper-violent young man who's experienced violence his whole life, who is transferred from a juvenile center into an adult prison. It's there where he reunites with his raging bull of a father, Neville (Mendelsohn), who is serving a life sentence. Eric appears to be beyond any sort of rehabilitation, but a tough volunteer therapist named Oliver (Rupert Friend) refuses to give up on him.

"Starred Up" is a remarkably fresh take on anger, and its ability to seep into your body like a parasite and completely take control of you. It's a film bristling with rage but also humanity, and it's a difficult but rewarding watch. It received nearly universal acclaim from critics, with A.O. Scott of The New York Times calling the movie "tough, violent, and profane...anchored by superb performances."

French master filmmaker Robert Bresson has a notably distant style, and he employs largely non-professional actors, limited music and stylistic choices to tell his stories. While that may sound a bit boring, "A Man Escaped" is exceptionally tense and exciting and features Bresson at his most muscular and exhilarating. Unlike many of the director's films, "A Man Escaped" actually has quite a bit of music, courtesy of one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The film has received extraordinary critical acclaim, landing a berth on Sight and Sound's list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time.

The movie keeps a close eye on prisoner of war Fontaine (the excellent Francois Leterrier in his first-ever role), who is being held in a Nazi POW camp. Fontaine receives word that he is to be executed, which spurs him to devise an impressive plan to escape, though his plans are thrown for a loop when Fontaine gets a cellmate. Luckily, his cellmate is every bit as interested in escaping as Fontaine is, and the two work together using materials in the prison to devise a daring exit. It all culminates in a breathless extended sequence of the titular moment, which stands mightily as perhaps the greatest escape scene in film history. If you haven't heard of "A Man Escaped" before, check it out — you won't find many better films than this one.